Transforming the mosaic - The Visualization of Spatial Social Structure - page 158

of change while the arrow length indicates the magnitude of change. 15 Pointing
up represents movement towards the Liberal party, left towards Labour and right
towards the Conservatives. The advantage of the parties having conventional
directions (left, right and centre) as well as colours (red, blue and yellow) has
been exploited here. The arrows could be coloured by the existing shares of the
vote, so as to show what political complexion the change was from.
What can be seen from these images of electoral fortune are uniform swings
around the country with distinct variations depending on both geographical and
political position. The divergence in political behaviour grew stronger, especially
from 1974 to 1987, as the arrows in different parts of the country began to head
in different directions, taking the voting compositions of the seats and the pattern
of victories with them. The dramatically changing fortunes of the Liberal party
are clearly shown.
The images shown here encompass two geographical redistributions of con-
stituency boundaries, both increasing the number of seats being contested. These
changes are incorporated in the graphics, the constituencies in which were sized
by the electorates of their respective election, and so the cartograms change in
shape on these pages. New seats squeeze in between their neighbours and old
ones are squeezed out. All the time the general shape of the country is changing
as people migrate both out of cities and, in general, to the South. The changing
pattern of turnout is also telling (Figure 5.22). Like a living part of the social
landscape, the political layers can quickly change their shape and colour.
5.7 Erosion and deposition
... London, at the heart of the South, has lost well over half a mil-
lion manufacturing jobs during the last twenty years. To put this into
perspective, London has lost almost as many manufacturing jobs as
Scotland ever had. Indeed, some of the fastest-growing areas are found
outside the traditionally prosperous South East and Midlands.
(Fothergill and Gudgin, 1982, p. 6)
To understand why the City of London was deregulated in the 'Big Bang' of
1986, a move that is now blamed for the economic crash of 2008 being far greater
than it otherwise might have been, requires knowing what came before 1986 and
what that change was in reaction to. The British social landscape changes slowly
but surely. The industrial infrastructure (the social geology) is most intransigent,
but when it is altered all else must change. The population structure reflects
movement and the changing fashions, like having children at particular ages and
in particular numbers. The social classes into which children are born are the soil
15 'A feature of voting behaviour in Britain in recent years has been the increasing volatility of
the electorate, with a growing proportion prepared to shift allegiance between elections' (Johnston
and Pattie, 1989a, p. 241).